A surprising surge in 200 Back qualifiers
With Hope College's Sara Kraus leading the way
This past weekend, six athletes met the B cut qualification for Women’s 200 Back.
And it was almost seven, with Hope’s Katie Hermann coming in with a 2:03.24 which is so tantalizingly close.
Kate Augustyn of MIT already had a 2:02.90, making for seven athletes total with a 200 Back time under 2:03.
At this time last year, there were two athletes under 2:02 in 200 Back Carnegie Mellon’s Savannah Xu and Ms. Kraus. We just got four in one weekend. Last year at this time there were four athletes total under 2:03. As noted early, it is November 6th and we are sitting at seven athletes faster than 2:03.
When the psych sheet came out last season on Feb. 23, the last invited swimmer was Elizabeth Pennington, a first-year from Rowan, with a time of 2:02.33.
That means Sara Kraus, Isabel Huang, Emma Merkel, Jane Sanderson, and Megan Jungers all just bested last year’s Nationals invite time in 200 Back.